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1001 Books: You Must Read Before You Die (1001 Must Before You Die)
 
 

1001 Books: You Must Read Before You Die (1001 Must Before You Die) (Paperback)

by Peter Boxall (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 960 pages
  • Publisher: Cassell Illustrated (9 Mar 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844034178
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844034178
  • Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 16.4 x 6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 72,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Tatler

"The only books you ever really need to read...it's like a library
in your pocket - dip into it and feel smugly well informed"


Daily Mail - Weekend Supplement

"...a fascinating guide to some of the most significant books ever
published."

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
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 (11)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Reader's Treasure Chest, 31 Aug 2006
As a biblioholic this was guaranteed to have me slavering with anticipation: a book about the 1001 best(?) books ever, with each one receiving a eulogy of around 300 words. It's quite a hefty tome: a bookshelf-bending 2kg in fact, nearly half of which must be due to all the photographs. Someone even managed to find a snap of JD Salinger - extra kudos for that.

Inevitably everyone will quibble about the selection, so why should I be any different? The omission of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is an unforgivable oversight. Other surprise absentees include Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess and anyone called Bradbury (there is no sign of The History Man, or Fahrenheit 451). And it's probably best not to mention Watership Down or Terry Pratchett - I don't envy the publishers having to deal with all those irate fans.

Maybe they were collateral damage in an editorial decision to avoid "children's" books - something which enabled them to sidestep Harry Potter, but also resulted in there being no place for Louis Sachar's Holes, or anything by Philip Pullman, Malorie Blackman or even Roald Dahl. (Is there a 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up in the pipeline I wonder? If so, can I be a compiler please?)

Such omissions are made harder to understand by the presence of quite a few insubstantial novels from recent years, and some of the choices make no sense at all. For example: two books by Paulo Coelho have been included, neither of which is The Alchemist; while BS Johnson is represented by three books, none of which is his legendary book-in-a-box (The Unfortunates). There is also a page where Youth by JM Coetzee sits next to Dead Air by Iain Banks, despite much stronger novels by both authors being absent. (I would have certainly included Coetzee's Age of Iron.)

The compiler also shows a treacherous predilection for the cinema: too many books seem to have been chosen because they spawned classic films. The Graduate and The Postman Always Rings Twice spring to mind. So The Third Man is here, but not Our Man In Havana; while Arthur C. Clarke is represented by the novelisation of 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than Childhood's End (or Rendezvous With Rama, or The Fountains of Paradise). Cassell also publish 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, but somehow I doubt the compiler of that book has chosen any mediocre films of great novels.

One more minor quibble: the title index at the front and the author index at the back are both riddled with errors and omissions, which seems sloppy. Despite all that it is a wonderful compendium to dip into over and over again - but beware: you will end up with lots more of books to add to your must-read list.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars 1 Book You Must Read Before You Die, 14 Mar 2006
Even if you're not counting on dying any time soon, you should get reading immediately if you hope to get through every book included in this bibliophile's companion. Luckily though, you don't have to actually read all those classic and influential novels, because this superb reference book provides enough information in itself to give the reader an excellent literary overview. With this single volume, you can avoid feeling that you've read so much that dying might be a merciful release from all that goddamned literature; instead, each pleasantly brief entry provides enough to grasp the essence of the book in question, and allows the reader to decide if they want to read the novel itself. The little fact boxes reveal some interesting kernals of trivia too - for example, Anne Rice was christened Howard. And OK, there are a few mistakes in the index, but frankly that does little to mar an excellent, fascinating and useful book.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for dipping into......., 31 May 2007
By Wynne Kelly "Kellydoll" (Coventry, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
This is a great book for "dipping into" rather than reading from start to finish. One of the members of the reading group I belong to brought it along to one of our meetings and I knew I had to buy my own copy. Like many people I had to do a count of how many of the 1001 books I had actually read - it was about 140. So I have a long way to go......

However I don't think the purpose of the book is to spur us on to competitive reading or to demoralise us if we haven't read a lot of the books selected. What this book is great for is to alert you to works you may want to read at some time in the future but have simply never got around to - such as To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf or The Idiot by Dostoevsky (both sitting on my bookshelves gathering dust).

It is also a good reminder of some books read long ago - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell, Germinal by Zola and The Razor's Edge by WS Maugham.

Obviously any list of this type is contentious and we all bring our own prejudices to such a venture. (No William Boyd? Shame on you! Six Margaret Attwoods....hooray)

And it is beautifully illustrated throughout with pictures of writers and original book covers.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it worth the money?
Yes it is! This book has become my new best friend recently and I dip into it often, everyday. I splashed out more than I have in many a day for this book and it has so far been... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sterile

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit less than hoped for
Of course this book is a lot of fun but I missed some of my favourite authors there. (Heinrich Böll, Roald Dahl and some feminist writers etc. Read more
Published 7 months ago by HH

1.0 out of 5 stars Lukewarm list
It is said that the Bishop of Wakefield, on reading Hardy's Jude the Obscure, was so enraged by it that he threw it on the fire. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Stephen Cooper

4.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable
This book is invaluable to any book lover! I have discovered so many new authors and books to add to my wish list. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Dot

5.0 out of 5 stars Temptation in paper form
I asked for this as a Christmas gift along with several other books and spent the entire day with my nose in this one. Read more
Published 13 months ago by R.J.R-M

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book about great books!
What more could you want in a reading guide? The 1001 books are not suggested to be the best ever, but rather a diverse selection of international novels which deserve to be read... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Nat

4.0 out of 5 stars Revised 2008 edition
This second "international" edition has been revised to include a far wider range of authors, including many prize winners (Nobel - Isaac Bashevis Singer, SY Agnon, Orhan Pamuk,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by James

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Argument Starter for Fiction Lovers
The first thing to understand about this massive brick of a book is that the title is meant to catch one's attention and that like the contents, it must be taken with a very large... Read more
Published 17 months ago by A. Ross

4.0 out of 5 stars There are some odd omissions in this compilation
The book lists several titles by Saul Bellow, but none by that marvellous (and Nobel prize-winning) writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. There is nothing by William Boyd. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2007 by Caroline Richmond

4.0 out of 5 stars Caution: unputdownable
Any book that encourages reading has got to be a good thing. Whilst generally not a fan of titles that try tell me how to spend my time before I croak - this actually covers a... Read more
Published on 18 Jul 2007 by Jl Adcock

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